CISR15110 | The Scheme: payments: CITB levy

The Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) is an industrial training board responsible for promoting vocational training in the construction industry. It is empowered to impose a levy on employers or contractors in the industry to fund its operations. These include making grants to employers/contractors whose training courses are approved by the CITB.

As contractors will often seek to recoup this outlay from their subcontractors, in the context of CIS, you will normally encounter the CITB levy in the form of a deduction made from the gross payment due to a subcontractor. This deduction should be excluded from the ‘Gross amount of payment’ shown on a monthly return.

For example, where the agreed contract price is £1,000 (plus VAT) and the CITB levy is,say £7, the sum that should be shown on the monthly return as the gross amount of the payment will be £993. That is the agreed contract payment of £1,000, excluding VAT and less a deduction of £7 for the CITB levy.

Whether the CITB levy imposed on employers/contractors is an admissible business expense or how grants made by the CITB are to be treated for income purposes are questions that are outside the scope of CIS. For guidance on these points refer to BIM47605.